Why it works: Haddock and pepper work together. They rank in the top 30% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 696 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Haddock Fritters
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Remove the skin and bones from the kippered haddock and cut it into pieces about an inch long.
Dip the pieces in thick beignet or frying batter.
Fry and serve
Fry in boiling lard or fat for about fifteen minutes, ensuring the oil is not too hot.
When done, drain on a cloth, season with coarse sea salt and a little cayenne pepper, and serve very hot.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Haddock + peppertop 30% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together696 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Kippered haddock
- Provides the main flesh and smoky, salty flavour of the fritters.
- Beignet or frying batter
- Forms a crisp, golden coating that seals in moisture during frying.
- Boiling lard or fat
- Conducts heat to cook the fish and crisp the batter, adding richness.
The step that matters
Keep the fat from getting too hot. If the fat is too hot, the batter browns or burns before the fish cooks through. Moderate heat lets the coating crisp evenly while the interior heats gently.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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